or is that even a right term to use? >> no. i think what you just hit on is another one of- you've articulated one of my key frustrations. or maybe it's a dilemma with religion. most certainly there is a religious ego, and i think that's exactly what we're seeing here. i think this is a strange peculiarity, but we're only human. you know, remember religion is ideally about the transcended- it's about going beyond boundaries, it's going to another place. and yet the only way we know is from our sense of self, which is filled with its own individuality- it's that a part and apart thing that we talked about very early in the semester. religion is a force for transcending these kinds of restrictive boundaries. at the same time, you bring in the doctrinal dimension, which makes those boundaries more rigid, so that you can know who you are. so i think what you have here is very much a religious- a set of religious egos that are very large that people have plugged into- you know, their individuality plugs into it collectively, and it'